


Raven: The Sister Of Sorcery

by Smokeycut



Category: Teen Titans
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, ignores the events of Teen Titans Rebirth, it splits off immediately after the events of Raven's 2016 miniseries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 15:32:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10699905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokeycut/pseuds/Smokeycut
Summary: Picking up where Raven's 2016 miniseries left off, the former Teen Titan has to balance a civilian life with her heroism. When another hero shows up in San Francisco, everything becomes a bit more exciting.





	1. Issue #1: Martians, Muggers and Magic

Raven fumbled with the buttons of her dress, groaning internally about her inability to use magic to dress herself, as she was used to doing. Still, she knew that it was better this way. Both in case a family member barged in unexpectedly, and so that she could get used to doing things like a normal girl. She'd never been normal before, but those past two weeks were an interesting experiment with the idea. Not using magic to dress herself, not teleporting to Denmark to fight demons, not living in a gigantic T shaped tower in the bay...

 _Normalcy is certainly interesting,_ she thought to herself while slipping on a pair of shoes. She exited her bedroom and made her way to the living room, where her aunt Alice was curled up on the couch, reading a book. Raven reminded herself to ask Alice about taking a trip to the local library later in the week, but this wasn't the time. She had somewhere to be.

"Hello, aunt Alice," Raven greeted with a soft smile. She had only been living under Alice's care for two weeks, but she already felt closer to her than she ever had to Arella. _The benefits of showing emotion_ , Raven joked to herself, only partially serious. She loved her mother dearly, but knew that there wasn't much of a connection between them, and she understood the reasons why. It didn't make it any less sad, though having a mother figure at last went a long way towards making her feel more whole.

"Good morning, sweetie!" Alice chirped, looking up from her book. Her typical cheery smile was plastered across her face. While it had unnerved Raven for the first few days, it now set her at ease. It was rare that she felt such genuine, lasting happiness radiate from a person every day. The only other person she knew to give off such feelings was Starfire. 

"I'm going to head out," Raven explained nonchalantly. "Antt wants to hang out and everyone else is busy today."

"Okay. Do you want a ride?" Alice asked. "I'd like to meet your friends."

"I'll walk. I will ask her if she would like to come here next time, though." A decent compromise. With that, Raven left the house, and was greeted by the California sunshine that she still wasn't quite used to. She blinked in the light and raised a hand to shield her eyes as she made her way to the nearest store. A 7/11 would suffice, she decided. Ducking behind the store, she checked to make sure nobody was watching her, and vanished with a dramatic wave of her arms, leaving nothing but black smoke in her wake.

Reappearing near Antt's house was just as simple. Raven walked the rest of the way to her friend's home, knocked on the door, and waited for someone to open it. That someone was the girl she had come to see. 

"Annabel Thompkins-Tang," Raven stated evenly. "Is today the day I learn those six other names?"

"Not by a long shot, Rachel. Unless you brought me coffee, that is," Antt teased with a playful smirk. She held the door open and ushered Raven inside, closing it behind her.

"I did not," Raven admitted. "Is anyone else here?"

"Nah, my parents are at work. Got the place to myself until tonight. Or, I guess, we have the place to _ourselves_ until tonight. Dude said he'd stop by if he can get out of 'family meditation sunday', so there's always that. Now c'mon, I gotta show you something!"

Antt took Raven by the hand and led her upstairs and to her bedroom, where a laptop was waiting on the bed. The girls sat down and looked at the screen, where Antt had pulled up a video labeled "San Francisco's new super hero". 

_Somebody must have filmed me stopping that bank robbery_ , Raven thought to herself, not surprised, but ready to play along. "A new hero? Who is it?" She asked, making her best attempt to sound earnest. 

"Just watch! This is so cool," Antt hushed her.

The camera was shaky and the audio quality was terrible, mostly just the sound of wind and car horns, but Raven could still make out the subject. Not a woman cloaked in blue, as she expected, but rather a man with green skin, stretching his arms several feet in order to grab an armored car. He tore off the roof with red eye beams and plucked out two men wearing gas masks. The video cut off there, with the camera person shouting the name of the hero. 

"Martian Manhunter!" Antt squealed. "I'm totally fangirling but can you blame me? He rocks!" 

"He's... cool." Cool is a good choice, Raven decided. She didn't have to mention that she knew next to nothing about the alien hero, but the excitement coming from Antt was overwhelming, and she couldn't let herself spoil that. "I like his stretchy arms." That much was the truth, she did find his shapeshifting to be an admirable ability.

"So, I know you aren't really the sorta person who likes taking risks..." Antt began, not knowing how wrong she was. "But do you want to go out martian spotting?"

"Martian spotting? As in, walking around San Francisco and hoping we see a crime, so that we can then watch Martian Manhunter stop it and possibly save us from life threatening harm?" Raven asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup!" Antt replied cheerily.

"Sure." _Not like I have anything better to do,_ Raven rationalized, figuring she could always use her soul self to save Antt if things got out of hand. 

"Great! I've already mapped out the locations he's appeared most often, and what types of crimes he's most likely to care about," Antt explained in earnest, pulling a map of the city out of her backpack and pointing out various pins that were stuck in it. "He doesn't stop muggings or purse snatchers, but he pays attention to large scale robberies, assaults, gang violence and supervillains. He's _never_ responded to fires though, even when they're smack in the center of his territory."

Raven figured that already, due to the fact that she was the one who always had to deal with arson. Her minor pyrokinesis ensured that it was never too difficult, and her healing abilities helped avoid civilian casualties, but it was frustrating that the newest of San Francisco's protectors refused to lend a stretchy green hand. Maybe when they found him she could find an answer. _If_ , she reminded herself. _If_ they found him.

"What about Raven? If she showed up, how likely would he be to appear?" Raven asked, surprised to find that she was getting invested in the subject of Antt's investigation. If she could use her alter ego to make her friend happy, she was willing.

"Not sure. He's not really a people person, based on what I've read online. He used to lead the JLA, but since they dissolved he hasn't really interacted with other heroes, or civilians. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. Just curious," Raven covered herself poorly, but was relieved when Antt nodded and accepted the half-truth. Raven slung her bag over her shoulder and waited for Antt to pack up her things. The map, pepper spray ("Just in case", according to Antt), two bottles of water, and some homework were all placed into Antt's backpack. The girls headed out with a smile and a deadpan expression on their faces, discussing their first target.

"Most of the videos from this week were filmed around the area that was affected by that tornado. I think he's living there, but the area is still closed off by the cops so we can't get too close," Antt explained, looking back at Raven as they walked down the street. "I'm thinking we can patrol about a block or two away. Still in his comfort zone, but far enough away that we don't have to deal with any yellow tape. What do you think?" 

"I think that it's a good plan," Raven admitted honestly. She considered possible options for what to say next, eventually deciding on a playful joke. "If you're lucky, he'll swoop in and carry you off in his arms." _Playful joke delivered._

"Hah! Sure that isn't your fantasy, Rachel?" Antt shot back with a smirk. Raven found herself smiling, enjoying the banter. It was always one of her favorite things about having friends, even if she wasn't the best at it herself.

The girls kept cracking jokes as they walked, mostly about superheroes. Raven managed to keep up with Antt, who seemed to be a master at turning around everything the young hero said. When the back and forth over who was secretly in love with Martian Manhunter, Swamp Thing, Beast Boy and Frankenstein came to an end, they began discussing which of their friends could secretly be a Teen Titan, which Raven found far more amusing.

"I'm telling you, Rachel, Dude is totally Beast Boy! He just paints himself green," Antt declared with mock seriousness, struggling, and failing, to hide her laughter.

"Nope. I say that it is Archer. He's Aqualad. I am positive," Raven joked, smiling wider than she was used to. It was there that she stopped herself, realizing she could have been pushing her own happiness onto Antt. She didn't think her friend would be upset at sharing that joy, but she reigned it in regardless, chastising herself for not keeping a lid on her feelings. It was getting harder these past two weeks, as hard as it was whenever she was with the Titans. Whenever she felt close to people. She felt a brief flash of shame, but shut it down before risking Antt feeling it as well. Controlling her emotions had become a far more difficult struggle ever since she left Azarath.

Raven was torn from her thoughts by a gasp of shock and fear from Antt, and she looked over to find three men with knives in their hands and scowls on their faces. The largest of the men stepped to the forefront and stared down at the girls. He stuck out his empty hand and coughed.

"You know the drill. Purses, cash, cards, _all of it_. Don't bother fighting back."

The girls stared at the muggers for what felt like an hour, waiting for something, _anything_ to happen. For red laser beams to shoot down from the sky at the criminals, or for a green skinned man to appear out of thin air and knock their attackers unconscious. When the leader of the group got fed up with Antt and Raven's inaction, he reached out and grabbed Antt by the wrist and held the knife to her neck. She shut her eyes tight and began to panic, unable to speak or even so much as scream in fear.

"Money. Now," the mugger demanded.

He didn't get much further before a dark, ghostly being rose up behind him and knocked the man to the ground. It twisted and shot towards his friends, lashing out to disarm them, then chase them off. When they were turning tail, it turned back to the leader of the trio and screeched in his face, sounding shrill and unholy in every sense of the word. The ghostly being retracted itself back into Raven's body just before Antt opened her eyes, and Raven scrambled to explain what had happened.

"It was Raven, from the Teen Titans. She came out from nowhere and saved us. It was amazing." 

Silence hung in the air as Antt's jaw dropped. It was broken by a groan of frustration as she held her head in her hands dramatically.

"We didn't get it on video?!" She cried upwards, towards the sky. She slouched and looked at Raven with puppy dog eyes. "We came looking for Martian Manhunter, got saved _Raven_ , who is way cooler, and we didn't get it on video."

"We can... keep looking?" Raven suggested cautiously, an uncertain look on her face. Antt went to respond, but was cut off before she could even begin.

"Yo! That was awesome!" 

Dude. It was Dude, holding his phone in the air triumphantly as he ran towards his friends. He collided into them with a massive hug, then pulled back and played the video he had captured. Blurry footage of the muggers being chased off by Raven's soul self, which proceeded to seemingly fly past Rachel before vanishing. They didn't realize that it was entering the body it came from. The trio began the trip back to Antt's house, with Dude and Raven discussing music while Antt obsessively watched the video again and again. Raven couldn't help but smile at that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is more or less my attempt to correct the issues I have with the Teen Titans Rebirth series. I don't really appreciate the fact that her miniseries has been ignored entirely, and I have a great love for the characters and concepts it introduced, so here's the Raven ongoing I think we should have gotten. I have a lot of ideas for this series, and I hope you enjoy it.


	2. Issue #2 - Lumbo Wumbo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family Game Night - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay. This chapter ended up going through several rewrites, but I finally got it to a point I'm happy with. Updates should be more regular from now on.

Raven slammed into the side of a building hard enough to make cracks in the brick wall. She groaned in frustration and pain as she pushed herself away, floating in the air and locking her sights back on the target. 

"Lets try that again," she muttered, lighting magical fire in the palms of her hands. She flew to the center of the street and stared down the man who knocked her into the building. Blue skin and a stage magician's outfit were certainly a unique combination, she thought to herself. 

"I see you're ready for my next act!" The magician waved a wand dramatically, making three copies of Raven, cloaked in white, appear out of thin air. 

One of the replicas flew right toward the original, only to vanish in a puff of smoke the moment it was hit by a burst of fire. The second and third fakes stayed still, but the moment the flames came close, they split. One went high, the other went low, traveling beneath Raven and ending up behind her. The original spun on her heel and shot another burst of flame, destroying that clone. Two down, one to go. Unfortunately, that one was nowhere to be seen.

Or at least thats what she thought in the moment before it fell from the sky and punched her in the face. It vanished on impact, but the blow knocked her off guard, and gave the supervillain an opening. A giant top hat fell on the hero, swallowing her up and trapping her on the ground. 

"Enough tricks, Jumbo Jumble!" She roared, cleaving the top hat apart with a pair of shadowy claws. She flew close to him, dodging blasts from his wand, and slammed her knees into his chest, knocking him to the ground and making him drop the wand.

"Mumbo Jumbo," he said weakly, pushing himself up. "I've told you my name thirteen times today, for pete's sake!" 

"I know. But it's fun watching you get upset," Raven teased, summoning a shadowy claw from beneath Mumbo and grabbing him. She picked his wand up off the ground and snapped it in half. A small flash of white mystical energy was the wand's final effect as it's magic was released. "Hm. Didn't have much left in there, did you?"

"Bah, I'll find another. You'll rue the day you crossed Mu-"

"Lumbo Wumbo, yeah, I know. Now hush." Raven turned away as the the shadow claws covered Mumbo's mouth. She pulled out her phone and began texting Antt as she waited for the police to haul the captured villain away. 

**Antt: movie night w Archer & Madison?**

**Rachel: I can't, sorry. Family game night.**

**Antt: ur kidding right**

**Rachel: I never joke about family game night.**

Raven had only experienced family game night twice, but she was determined to win. From the intel Mary Beth had given her, Uncle Jack was the reigning champion, and he needed to be deposed. Each week's winner got control over the car radio while they were around. Raven would win. She _needed_ to win.

She put her phone away and took notice of the crowd that had gathered along with the police. Cell phones snapping pictures of her and the villain as he was pushed into the back of the police car. Raven caught a glimpse of Aunt Alice among the onlookers, and quickly turned her head away. Of all the people she knew, her family were the most likely to recognize the face beneath her hood. She swallowed herself in a bubble of shadow and vanished, reappearing in her bedroom at home.

Raven sat down on her bed and looked out the window. She had been living in San Francisco for some time now, ever since she came to Earth from Azarath, but this was the first time she had a normal home to live in. She still hadn't decorated much. A photograph of herself and Tim by the bay, out of costume, sat on top of her dresser. Pinned to the wall by the window was a poster that she bought to liven up the place. Aside from those, her room was mostly bare. Just her suitcase, hidden under the bed, and some dirty clothes in the hamper. She considered video chatting with Gar, but decided against it. Later that night, after everyone was asleep, would be best. 

"Rachel, are you in there?" Billy asked from the other side of the door. "Me and Mary Beth are gonna ride our bikes to the mall. You wanna come?"

"Uh... sure," Raven said. As much as she liked sticking to herself, she also preferred keeping an eye on her younger cousins when they went out. People like Mumbo could always stir up trouble. She took a moment to look back at the photo of herself and her now dead friend before opening the door.

 

The mall was crowded. Very, very crowded. Raven was following her cousins around as they window shopped, and was seriously considering creating a bubble to wall off the various people who swarmed around them. She smothered her anxiety and trudged onwards through the crowd. Mary Beth dragged them into yet another clothing store, though this one at least appealed to Raven's fashion sense.

Raven crossed her arms and watched as her cousin rifled through racks of clothing. Checking her phone showed no new messages from Antt or her other friends, and no missed calls from Garfield. It was when she put her phone away that something caught her attention. Pinned to the cashier's counter was a flyer, showing the band Night Mistress, as well as a date for an upcoming concert. Raven was certain that Antt and Madison would drag her along to it, but she made a mental note to get a ticket for herself regardless. She didn't want them to have to pay for her.

"Rachel, Billy, look!" Mary Beth called out, pointing at a different flyer. It only had a date, time, location, and an image of a magician's hat on a rabbit's head. "That's today, right? Here at the mall. It has to be a magician, right?" She asked.

"It could be a petting zoo," Billy suggested.

"Pshh, it's not a petting zoo! It's got a top hat," Mary Beth said, putting her hands on her hips. She resembled Alice in an eerie way, Raven noticed. Like mother like daughter, she supposed.

"If you want to see it, we've got five minutes before it starts," Raven pointed out. 

Her cousins wore their smiles proudly as they dragged Raven to the show's location, near the food court. There was a small wooden stage set up in front of a fountain, and Raven could have sworn that it wasn't there when they first arrived at the mall. Various props were scattered around the stage, from an oversized top hat to a pine box and handsaw. It was definitely a magician, and not the kind Raven cared for. As a small crowd gathered around the stage, and as Billy and Mary Beth grew more and more excited, a sense of unease grew in the pit of Raven's stomach. The emotions all around her were the sort she'd expect, mostly excitement, followed by the boredom of a few parents and teenagers, but there was something else behind it all. One soul, filled with anger. It was hard to detect behind the crashing waves of giddiness, but she could still feel it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages..." a gratingly familiar voice began. "I present the one, the only, Mumbo Jumbo!"

With a popping noise and a puff of blue smoke, he was on stage, staring daggers at Raven and twirling his mustache. Raven didn't know how he had already escaped, but she did know one thing. She'd have to stop him without her cousins noticing.

"This'll be fun," she groaned.


End file.
